Emergency Unemployment Compensation Continuation Act

Floor Speech

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Mrs. MALONEY. I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Madam Speaker, the Joint Economic Committee, which I chair, released a report today that finds that if Congress fails to extend the Federal unemployment insurance benefits program, the unintended consequences could be extremely serious. Serious not just for the 2 million Americans who would see their benefits expire in December, but extremely serious for the larger economy as well.

Prematurely ending the program would drain our economy of some $80 billion in purchasing power, just as our fragile economy is beginning to recover. This would result in the loss of over 1 million jobs over the next year. Even now, there are five Americans looking for work for every job opening in the land; and more than 40 percent of those unemployed have been out of work for 27 weeks or more, including over 159,000 in New York State, with some 95,000 in my home of New York City. Choosing to vote against an extension, and thus add a million Americans to the ranks of the unemployed, cannot possibly be considered as a wise economic policy choice.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office ranks the stimulative effects of unemployment benefits as one of the most effective policies to increase growth and employment that they have studied, and the President's Council of Economic Advisers estimates that every dollar spent on unemployment insurance benefits increases the gross domestic product by $1.60. Economists predict that without extended benefits, the economy will suffer, consumer spending will fall by 0.5 percent, and economic growth will be reduced by almost 0.5 percent.

The SPEAKER pro tempore. The time of the gentlewoman has expired.

Mr. McDERMOTT. I yield the gentlelady an additional 30 seconds.

Mrs. MALONEY. The facts and the numbers in the new JEC report make it clear that extending this program benefits those who need our help most, benefits the larger economy, and thus benefits us all.

I urge a ``yes'' vote on this bill.

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